Break!

Yay!  It's Thanksgiving break!  After two eight hour days of parent-teacher conferences, I'm ready for some time off. 

Yesterday, I was at conferences from 12 to 8 pm, and on Monday I had the same.  I managed to sneak in some time to print up a penguin shirt using my new penguin blocks.

It's a plus-sized shirt (2XL), and I think it turned out rather well.  You can see it here in my ETSY shop .

I also made a sports bra in size XL, using the same penguin block.  I'm on some kinda penguin kick now, I guess.  You can see this item here in my ETSY shop as well.

Because I was gone for the past two evenings, my mom was kind enough to take my pup over to her house for the evening.  She took him for a run on both nights, going 4 miles the first night, and 3 the second night because it was pouring.  She said he was an excellent running partner, so maybe she'll take him again :0)!  My mom runs marathons at almost 60 years old, which is quite cool.  My little brother got her healthy joint genes and is running in her footsteps. I take after my dad, sadly, and had all the cartilage scoped out of my knee after a bone spur showed up in there and scraped most of it off all by itself.  So I have to settle for walking endless miles with the pup.  No complaints though; I can still walk.

Now, off to enjoy 5 days off!  Yay!

More penguins

I made yet another penguin stamp in the last two nights.  No pictures as of yet, so will have to upload one later.  I'm on quite a penguin kick lately, and as I got a nice big sheet of pink SpeedyStamp, I can carve to my heart's delight for at least a while.  I also made a small bow stamp that I can use as a penguin hair bow (do penguins need hair bows?) or bow ties.  I am on a total carving kick.

It helps that I am making sales again (amazing what actually putting effort into something will do!).  I sold a penguin shirt I made from a screen made on a piece of curtain fabric and using an embroidery hoop as the frame.  I used screen drawing fluid and filler, but because the screen is held in such a crappy frame, it's starting to crack.  It's okay; I'm trying to move from screens to stamps because I like the variety of designs I can get from three stamps together, as opposed to a screen with a set pattern.  Strangely, a sheet of stamp material is cheaper than a blank screen.  Screens do get clearer results, though.

I also have a potential sale for a customized item from a block as well.  Hurray!  If only I didn't have such "hobby A.D.D.," as my little brother calls it.  He has it, too, btw.   Oooooh, sewing, ooooh carving, oooooh, shoe painting, ooooh, writing!  Never follow through with much.

My dog-sittee, a puggle, was playing tonight with my hyperhund while I was carving and watching t.v.  All of a sudden, there were blood spots on the couch, and they were not from me or my carving utensils (thankfully, I suppose).  Turns out the puggle's ear was bleeding from the rough-housing he and my pup were doing.  He dribbled blood all five doors back down to his place, but I think I staunched it fairly well with Wal-mart Neosporin when we got back to his place.  Left a note for his "daddy."

Speaking of the Hyperhund, now that he has his zap collar, I have had no need to use it, thank goodness.  He has been responding just fine to the vibe option, which is nice.  He had stopped responding to it on his vibe-only collar, but I think it was because the strap was loosening.  This one has a better strap, so we'll see what happens.

That's all for now.  More later.  Must go to bed (at 10:15 on a Friday night!?); I'm so boring!

Penguin!

I spent a short few hours tonight watching random tv shows (Old Christine, Glee, Ghost Whisperer), and while I did, I carved out this stamp:

It's actually a pretty big stamp at almost 3" or so.  It's the first stamp / block I've managed to make that actually has some semi-fine lines on it!  Hurray! :0) 

It actually turned out well, considering I free-handed the original picture in under 30 seconds, on an index card, during my lunch break at school.  If only carving took such a short time.  But it's actually kinda therapeutic in a way.

On a completely random note, I'm feeling kinda like a bad doggie owner right now.  I had to get the hyperhund an electric collar, which I swore I'd never do.  But he runs off-leash at the doggie forest preserve every day (probably about 12 miles a pop), or he's hyper for the rest of the evening.  He needs a whole lot of running.  However, once he gets on a coyote or deer scent, he's off and he runs so far and fast that I'm scared to death that he's not gonna come back, not because he wants to, but because he gets lost.  Another dog at the forest preserve got killed last month when he ran off on a scent and ran into a highway quite far away.  Got hit by a semi.  These dogs go insane on deer and coyote scents.  I don't know if there's any training that would keep them by their owners in this case.  My dog is well-trained, even with squirrels and rabbits and ducks, which he would love to  chase.  Deer and coyotes, forget it.  Hmmm. 

Well, the collar is a pager collar by Unleashed Technology.  It vibrates first and you can go to stim if you want.  I had a vibe only collar for him, but he quickly learned to ignore that.  At any rate, I figure I'll only use it when he does go nuts on a scent, to break his focus.  He's part pointer, part weim, part GSD, so he's extremely nose-oriented.

Well, that's that.  I'm so in need of vacation.  It's nice being a teacher; I get a lot of time off, I get time to make a bunch of stuff, and I do have a  good time while I'm teaching.  I have parent-teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday, then the rest of the week off.  Can't wait....

Dish Towel and Naughty Fox

This is what I made today :0)  I think it's kinda cute, but then again, I really like this little cupcake stamp.  In any case, it's a dish towel, in case you couldn't tell, and one of those vintage-y looking ones made of faux-sackcloth.   You can get it here if you are at all interested.

I am rather disappointed in my other project, though.  I used my new little fox stamp to stamp on an old hoodie sweatshirt.  As my students would say: "Epic fail."  The first time I did this, the paint stuck to the stamp, for some reason, and then blotched on the hoodie.  I tried to fix it by reworking the stamp a little and then restamping over the first lines in a darker color.  Okay, that was better.  Set the paint and decided to wash it because the hoodie was all creased from being folded up.

Turns out the paint wasn't set.  Most of it came off, the black paint kinda smeared and it looks like a total fail, which I think it is.  Here you can see my shame:

The foxes were originally meant to be dark orange.  My paint was also a fail because it had somewhat dried and coagulated to a thick orange paste.  Oh well.  Some things just aren't meant to be.

I'm back!

hi there!  I'm back!  I let this blog lapse for some reason, like for more than 9 months, I think.  How terrible is that?  I'm not sure anyone was too disappointed.

Anyhow, added some pictures in the sidebar of my doggie and kitties, as well as random information about myself.

I got back onto this blog because  I felt the urge to start carving blocks again and printing thousands of pounds of underwear again.  So I have a whole new crop of those in my etsy store. 

I carved a kawaii sort of cupcake block two days ago.  Here's a picture of some underpanties I printed using them:

They made me smile anyhow.  I'm planning on putting the block on hoodies some time soon.  You can get these panties here.  You can also convo me if size 5 is not your size, and I'll custom make you a pair.         

I also carved a really sweet little fox block, but it's not printing clearly on fabric because of the detail and the thickness of the fabric I was using.  I'll have to deepen all my cuts before I print with it again, and not sure how deeply I can cut, because this is my first time using "the pink stuff" to carve blocks.  I like this pink carving material better than the white speedy cut (crumbles), and about the same as master-carve, though maybe a bit more because it's pink.  And pink is good.  :0)

Economy, etc.

I do wonder how come I've had more sales this month than I ever had, at a time when the economy is supposed to be so terrible. Maybe all the relisting I've done has helped after all.

Speaking of economy, I just realized that economizing has helped me lose 10 lbs. without even really trying. I got my dog in June, and I stopped going to the gym because I was walking him a lot and he was a pup and couldn't be home alone too much. No more need for a gym membership... I walk him 5 miles or so a day, every day, even in those horrible midwest winter days at -30*. Thank goodness I have a tough, outdoor-loving dog. He's such a trooper. He rolls in the snow even when it's that cold. It's still too hot for him! So no more gym membership needed. I do pushups and situps at home and that helps round everything out.

Then turns out Mr. Pup is intolerant of most kibble foods, so I cook for him. Then, I cook more healthy foods for me, too. So I save money by not going out, and I get healthier food. Hurray for a slow economy!!!

Speaking of that, I posted an ad or Freecycle.org about needing meat for my dog (freezerburnt was ok). One lady donated SEVENTEEN LBS! A grocery bag full of tenderloin, 2" thick cuts of pork, bags and packages of chicken breasts, beef liver, sheesh. She said they were past their expiration in the freezer and she didn't want to feed them to her family. Wow. Some were a month past the date, but come on, they were frozen. And well-wrapped. And two lbs. of tenderloin. Wow. I love freecycle.

I sold 8 pairs of underwear in the last week, along with a corset, and a t-shirt. It's making my day.

I finally listed my skirt made from the band concert t of The Cure, which is shown above. You can buy it here.

Cold days and slacking off

Here's my new skirt I made last weekend. BUY HERE. It's retro 80s, rainbow, boho, little bit of everything cute, flowery Care Bear happiness. It's a size large, but it fits me and I'm a small. It stretches a lot to accomodate a large though.

There are some things you make and it's kinda like, eh. Then there are those things you make and they make you happy in return. This did it for me, because I loved the Care Bears when I was growing up. My neighbors, my brothers, and I had a Care Bear club in Billy K's treehouse in the cul-de-sac. My mom made our CareBears. I had a Love-A-Lot bear, but it had curly yellow fur instead of pink. The good intention was there, though ;0)

It's so cold here in the Mid-West. I have to keep my bedroom door closed because Marley the crazy cat feels the irresistible urge to pee on my bed if I leave it open.

I try to leave the heat down to 60* most of the time, to save money on electricity (I have electric heat and my last bill was $181 for my little condo), but when I do that and close the bedroom, the bedroom temp is about 52*. Umm, too cold for me.

So, I used my little PayPal account I have from selling my ETSY stuff, and I got this space heater from walmart.com. It looks great, it's cheap, and from the reviews, it seems very powerful. I might even turn the heat down even more if this thing works well. It's on a thermostat, so it turns off when the room is the right temperature. Hopefully it will be cheaper than my main heater and hopefully it won't cause power surges or blown fuses or whatever it is that causes my lights to go out when I'm in the shower with a space heater on in the bathroom (I know, so safe, right? but it's not in the shower WITH me...)

I sold my flames corset, today, which is great.

I have to list a skirt I made, too. It's a Cure skirt (the band). It's pink, red, and black, and it's free drawstring waisted. I made it last weekend, too, so I should have listed it then, but, hey, been lazy...

That's all for now...

Such a long time. Christmas hoodies, etc.

So I haven't posted in a while. It's been so cold here in the midwest that school was canceled in most districts two days in a row. I got Friday off, and Monday is MLK day, so I really have a four day weekend. I just realized that my doggie's multitudes of skin problems are not allergies but a reaction to electric heat and the dryness of it. So I have to keep the heat down at 60*, which he loves, the cats hate, and I tolerate. I live on the bottom floor of a three floor condo, so I was probably heating the whole building anyhow (which is why my electric bill is $170 a month for a tiny condo!!). Now, my neighbors upstairs can pay for their own heat! The I have the "ghetto humidifier": a pot of boiling water on the stove.

Made and sold a few things over break, and I have about $100 in my paypal account now, which is awesome for me. If I just listed things more often, I'd be $500 richer a month, right? Ha. Laziness gets in the way.

I made my first two stenciled hoodies for my brother and my sister-in-law. We have been into making gifts for each other, and hoodies are everyone's favorite thing to wear in the midwest in winter, right? Anyhow, I am abnormally proud of these sweatshirts, so here they are:


The DNA Geek one is for my lil brother. He is a biologist and a self-proclaimed geek. I am telling everyone that you haven't really lived until you've cut a stencil of a DNA double helix. Really.



This one was for my sister-in-law, who reads more than me, which I didn't think was possible. Haha. She blogs about it at: http://openmindinsertbook.blogspot.com/ . The stencil on it was much easier. The hoodie looks better on her than on my dummy.

When I showed people the hoodies, most of them said, "Won't your brother and his wife beinsulted?" or "That's not nice! Who'd want to wear something that said that?" Apparently, they don't know our family....

Thought later I should have kept the stencils and made more sweatshirts and maybe put them in my etsy store. Too late. Threw the stencils away; they were fragile and made of cardstock anyhow. Limited runs, I guess. Not that I think the world is running amuck with self-proclaimed book nerds and DNA geeks, but there's gotta be some.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll post again soon. Haha. That laziness thing again....

(If you do want a sweatshirt like this, feel free to go to my etsy store and convo me, and maybe I can remake the stencils....)